Innovate for Mars, and maybe the Earth



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This article is from GreenBiz's Circular Weekly, which takes place on Fridays.

Reading this essay in the comfort of your home or office, imagine this: On the arid slopes of the Mauna Loa Volcano in Hawaii, six foreigners volunteered to live in an autonomous geodesic dome, only 36 feet from diameter, for a whole year. The crew lived without a physical connection with the outside world and with minimal digital communication, by choice.

This may look like the appearance of a space reality show, but their vision was far greater than vanity or masochism: they want me to take NASA and humans to Mars .

I recently devoured The Habitat, an addictive podcast from Gimlet Media that tells HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation), this mission simulated on Mars. In addition to stoking my gratitude for the mobile, varied and outdoor life I lead, the podcast has encouraged me to come back to a popular question: How to explore another planet helps us she here on Earth?

Catherine astronaut "Cady" Coleman, the link is clear: "Durability, for someone like me who plans to go to Mars, is a closed-circuit system, not to be in able to go home or bring supplies. ", she told Joel Makower during an interview at our VERGE conference in 2015.

Nothing new to look for solutions to problems of our planet. What it is to filter the water from the urine of astronauts, to cultivate food using the LED light or tools of the planet. 3D printing, NASA's technological advances designed for intergalactic missions are already serving us.The technology needed to prepare life on our planet with limited resources is not so different from the preparation for life on Mars (to share the speed, the atmosphere, the temperature and some other non trivial factors (19659003) However, the technology itself so far. "You have to realize that you have to give up some control, you have to be open to other people and you have to be brave," Coleman said in a recent interview.

The Habitat podcast offers such a captivating story as it responds to the challenge of human collaboration, even with a shared vision like NASA's moonshot (or Mars-shot, as it can be) That's all there is to it. it's about creating a closed-loop plastic value chain, eliminating food waste or designing products for disbadembly and reuse, even the best innovators can not create and develop solutions in the void. They must engage the greatest ecosystem to succeed

VERGE Accelerate : Speaking of innovation ecosystems, we would like to know what challenges you are trying to meet. solve. We have just launched our VERGE Accelerate program, which offers start-ups the opportunity to meet thousands of business leaders, government officials and investors on the main stage of VERGE 18, from May 16 to October 18 in Oakland California. Our goal is to elevate, celebrate and accelerate entrepreneurs to the forefront of game-changing innovations.

Among the participants in the circular economy of last year: Evrnu, a regenerative fiber company that works with companies like Levi's and Target to produce recycled fabrics with 98 percent less water than grown cotton, using a closed-loop process to reuse chemical solvents in the process; Renewal Mill, a startup that reduces food waste into the by-products of industrial food production; and Bioplastic Recycling, a company that works to facilitate and expand the used bioplastics market.

You and your company are out of this world (or maybe just what the planet needs)? Consult the qualification criteria and apply before July 30th.

If you have any questions or ideas about innovation – on earth or in space – feel free to send me a note to [email protected]. I invite you to suggest a story or topic that we should cover, or an interesting article that you have come across in your online travels.

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